We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.

These days, you don't have to do any real innovation. Just put a PC in a cylinder that looks like an Imperial torture droid, and you'll have nimrods lined up around the block, probably clutching their aluminum iPhone 5 or HTC One fashion accessories.

People throw the word innovation around without understanding what it means...

Inovation: Noun

1. A new method, idea, product, etc.
2. The action or process of innovating.

Common Synonyms: Novelty, Newness, Departure, Modification

My only point really is this IS innovation - you just don't like it. That's fine and all, I totally get that and you are certainly entitled. But you say it's not real innovation... What is? Apple is essentially an VAR when talking about anything north of tablets - they don't make computers - they "package" them. If their package is just like all the other packages, well then that ARE NOT innovating are they?

In a nutshell, if it was a big beige box it would most certainly be LESS innovative, wouldn't it?

Thing is, I KIND OF understand this obsession with form over function when it comes to phones... I mean, if you're using them as status symbols, at least you carry it around with you, so others can see how cool you are.

There are lots of people who feel like you do about this. I think it is simply a lack of perspective on human psychology.

Apple makes computers and gadgets - but they sell them primarily based on refined design. Sure, lots of people buy these kinds of things purely to look cool or whatever - I don't deny that at all. But it's not having the "thing" that makes such a person feel "cool" - it is the fact that they want others to see them as someone who appreciates such things (design, asthetics, etc.) and is willing to pay for it. It is the epitome of a status symbol. Such people are shallow, I will spend no time defending them.

There are lots of people though that actually appreciate refined design. They buy nice things - nice furniture, nice cars, nice houses, nice art, nice wine, etc. They appreciate such things beyond how it makes them look to others - because they really don't care what other people think, they have money, like to spend it in ways that make them happy, and can easily afford it. They are called "rich" and they are the target of a great deal of commerce in market economies...

There are still others that do some of that even though that are NOT rich, they are more picky though. Some will buy high end scotch or beer, some splurge on clothes, some on furniture, etc. They are not rich, but they selectively spend excess money on certain things because they simply appreciate those things. It is a form of self reward and has nothing at all to do with image or status symbols.

Apple does things the way they do because they want THESE kinds of people to buy their products. They do this because they like to operate at very high margins, and this is how ALL high margin products are sold.

You appeal to a sense of taste and aesthetics, you present a product that obviously took lots of effort, you make certain you present it in a way that leaves no question to the fact they you really thought about how it is made and how it all goes together. Then you charge a lot of $$$ for it.

That is how luxury cars are sold, that is how fine cigars are sold, that is how good scotch is sold, etc. It is how Pioneer managed to sell Plasma TVs for $10,000 when everyone else was selling them for $3000. I could keep going FOREVER.

Point is there is some item that you buy, yes YOU - that can falls into this category. If there isn't you are not human... It may be as simple as buying Coke instead of no-name Cola, but you do it. Everyone does.

It is emphatically notonly about status symbols and looking cool... There is more to it than that.

Conveniently for Apple, there is one particular demographic that they simple don't care AT ALL about appealing to - it is people who don't appreciate what they do. If you think of phones or computers as all being the same, look and feel doesn't matter, one beige box is just as good as another, well they don't really care about you buying their products - you are their kryptonite and they don't want you.

If they spent an ounce of effort trying to make these people happy they would turn into AST, Hewlett Packard, Gateway, Dell, HP, Compaq, etc. Another boring OEM on a race to the bottom on pricing... I'm not saying that an Apple computer is better than a Dell or HP or whatever, I'm saying that Apple's business model depends on them not selling the same stuff that everyone else sells... It has to be different or they can't justify the pricing - the key is they effectively convince quite a lot of people that their idea of different = better.

My point (I do have one) is that being frugal about computers is fine - there is nothing at all wrong with it. Some people just don't care about form and only want function. To each their own an all that. The solution is simple - don't buy Apple stuff. There are LOTS of alternatives.

But please don't assume that all people that do care about such things are just trying to look "cool" - its infuriating. It would be like me calling you a cheapskate or a tightass - it is nothing but a form of name calling.

I really don't think that you are either of those things btw. I'm a middle aged guy on a middle class salary. I have a Macbook Air - one of the few things I splurged on, and I really REALLY like it. Fact is I'm more embarrassed to haul it around than anything else - specifically because I know some people assume that I must be a techno-snob or something...

I can't afford (and don't want) a Mac Pro. But I don't automatically think that people that can and do are sheep... There is more to it than that.